HS2's illusory benefits. The Social Democratic Party offer an alternative.

The letter below published in The Week (27 February) echoes my thoughts on HS2.   It also adds some pertinent points on working practices following Covid-19.  The letter first appeared in The Daily Telegraph.

 HS2’s illusory benefits.

To The Daily Telegraph.

The Government demanded that HS2 should be designed to reach a top speed of 250 mph – which many experts said was unnecessary given the relatively short distances concerned.  This restricts its route, as curves cannot be included, forcing the line through homes and sensitive areas, including 33 Sites of Special Scientific Interest and 108 ancient woodlands.

The argument that journey times will be shorter ignores the fact that there are no stations between Birmingham and London, so many of the headline time savings will be eaten up by additional journeys required to reach HS2.  Furthermore, even after the completion of the final phase, HS2 only reaches about half way up England, so the true long distances don’t benefit from the dramatic cuts to journey times seen in other countries.

Of course, the case for HS2 has further collapsed now that many people have discovered, thanks to Covid-19, that they no longer need to travel to work anyway.  I’m sure the vast majority of the population would prefer to have superfast broadband for everyone, rather than an over-fast railway for a few.

Gordon Findlay, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The Social Democratic Party has an appealing policy which advocates cancelling HS2 and using the funds on creating a new rail network in The North of England.

All well and good, but I would like to see funds spent on reopening, where practicable, lines and stations closed by Beeching. 

Railways should be operated as a public service under state control – something which the SDP also appears to support.  I reproduce below some of their transport policies from their website.  I hope they don’t mind, but they are ones which I could certainly vote for.

• Our railway system will be nationalised. Rail operator franchises will be taken back into public ownership as they fall due via a re-established British Railways.
• British Railways will be a comprehensive, fully integrated system encompassing track and infrastructure, rolling stock and stations.
• A Minister for Rail will be introduced, responsible and accountable for making the system work for the public and passengers.
• We will scrap HS2 and invest some of the freed-up funds to create a Great Northern Railway Network, better linking up the towns and cities of the North of England to unleash their joint potential.
• Funding for regional and rural bus travel will be increased in order to protect the viability of and patronage on essential routes.
• VAT on motor vehicles costing more than £35,000 will be increased to 25%.